Tracy - Negotiation: The Brian Tracy Success Library

NEGOTIATION

NEGOTIATION

BRIAN TRACY

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tracy, Brian.

Negotiation / Brian Tracy.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8144-3318-8 ISBN 0-8144-3318-9 1. Negotiation in business.

I. Title.

HD58.6.T73 2013
658.4052dc23

2013010064

2013 Brian Tracy

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

YOUR SUCCESS IN business and in life will be determined by your ability to negotiate in your best interests in every situation. Negotiating is a key skill that affects everything you do or say, and almost all of your interactions, both personal and in business. If you cannot negotiate well on your best behalf, then you automatically become the victim of people who are better negotiators than you. You will always achieve a better income, or get a better deal, if you are good at negotiating.

Life may be viewed as one long, extended negotiating session, from the cradle to the grave. Negotiation never stops. It is a major part of the business of living and communicating with others. It is the way that individuals with differing values and interests find constructive ways to live and work together in harmony. Your ability to negotiate successfully is essential to your success in all your interactions with other people.

Negotiating has been going on since the beginning of civilization because humans have always had an interest in improving their relative position in life. Everyone wants to achieve more of those things that are goodhappiness, wealth, position, love, security, status, prestige, and success. And people want to achieve their goals in ways that are faster and easier, and at the lowest possible cost of time and money. Every one of us is in a form of competition with many other people who also want to achieve the same goals, results, and outcomes.

It is by compromising, trading, and negotiating that we balance conflicting and competing wants and needs to ensure that we achieve the best possible outcome for ourselves.

Value Is Subjective

The price or value of anything is always and only determined by the level of demand or desire for that good. The value is determined by what a particular individual, at a particular time, under a particular set of circumstances, considers something to be worth.

Since this type of value judgment is always subjective, there is never a right and final price or set of terms that can be decided in advance. The prices that people are willing to pay or accept always depend on the individuals involved and their relative scale of needs at the time of the transaction. Subjective evaluations are what create the desire to exchange goods, services, money, and other things. In every voluntary trade or transaction, the parties involved will only agree with the prices and terms if they believe they will be better off afterward than if they had not entered into the negotiation or transaction at all. As they say, Its differences of opinion that make a horse race.

Practical Strategies and Methods

Over the years, I have negotiated many millions of dollars worth of contracts for residential, commercial, and industrial real estate, including shopping centers, office buildings, and land development. I have negotiated the importation and distribution of more than $25 million worth of automobiles, plus contracts for printing, consulting, training, advertising, conventions and meetings, and sales of thousands of items worth millions of dollars.

The ideas in this book are therefore based on extensive experience, both good and bad, supplemented by years of study into the art and science of negotiating. You are about to learn a series of the most important strategies and tactics ever discovered in the field of negotiating.

Each of these ideas is practical, proven, and applicable immediately. They work, and theyll enable you to get a better deal in almost every situation. I have taught these skills to hundreds of thousands of businesspeople worldwide, and the positive results that they have achieved in negotiating have been life-changing. If you systematically apply even a small part of what you are about to learn, you can bring about a major improvement in the quality and quantity of your results.

Negotiating Is Learnable

Even little children negotiate. They know that little hugs and affection are the currency with which they negotiate with their parents and relatives. Negotiating (or not negotiating), compromising (or refusing to compromise), and working to reconcile conflicting intereststhese activities are an essential part of human life. Your ability to negotiate well can make an extraordinary difference in your financial life, your career, your relationships, and almost everything you get or give in the course of daily life.

Fortunately, negotiating is a skill, and all skills are learnable. Everyone who is an excellent negotiator today was once a poor negotiator who ended up with far worse deals than today. The more you learn, think, and practice negotiating, the better a negotiator you will become. As you achieve better and better results, you will also feel happier, more self-confident, and more in charge of your life.

One of the most powerful ways we learn is to contrast and compare what we are doing with what we could be doing. Think of an important area where you are negotiating in your personal or business life today. As you read through this book, think of how you could practice these techniques to achieve a better outcome or result than you are achieving today. As you put these ideas into action, you will be astonished at how much better the negotiation works out for you, and how much happier you will be as a result.

ONE

Everything Is Negotiable

EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE should be your attitude and your approach to life and business from now on. One of the greatest obstacles to success and happiness is passivity. Passive people merely accept the current state of affairs, and they usually feel helpless to change the situation. Proactive people, on the other hand, see opportunities and possibilities everywhere, and are always looking for ways to change the situation to their own advantage. This should be your strategy as well.